Pied Piper

By James Gollin

Subjects: Biography, New York Pro Musica, Early-music specialists, New york (state), biography, Conductors (music), Conductors (Music)

Description: "Noah Greenberg's life story reads like a gritty Jack London or Theodore Dreiser romance, set against the backdrop of New York's political and cultural scene. Born and raised in the Bronx, the child of immigrant parents, Greenberg had no education beyond high school and absolutely no formal musical training. Yet he rose to musical celebrity as cofounder and director of the legendary New York Pro Musica and became the driving force behind the American early music revival.". "In 1952, he put together an ensemble of engaging young singers and instrumentalists, who gave lively, expressive interpretations of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque works. Their presentation of the liturgical drama The Play of Daniel won them international fame. Under Greenberg's leadership, they recorded extensively and toured Europe, the Soviet Union, and Latin America. At the height of his and Pro Musica's success, Noah Greenberg died at the age of 47. In Pied Piper, James Gollin not only relates Greenberg's tragically short, but highly colorful life story, but he sets the man in the rich context of America's rise to postwar political and cultural prominence."--BOOK JACKET.